About Me

I cut my teeth on leadership anxiety when I served as a chaplain at a level one trauma hospital. The hospital sent us into every conceivable human experience and we had nothing but our wits and the presence of God to get us through. In that baptism of fire, I learned how to pay attention to what was going on under the surface of my own life, and also the dynamics between family members. I was steeped in family systems theory and then later studied cybernetics in graduate school. My unique experience and training deepened my leadership capacity to mange anxiety and notice it in groups.

Since 2005, I have served as Lead Pastor of Discovery Christian Church in Broomfield, Colorado, an innovative and entrepreneurial church that has grown from 150 to more than 1000 in weekly attendance. The church intentionally welcomes spiritual seekers and skeptics and is passionate about partnerships that break the local and global poverty cycle. I have also served at a mega church in Las Vegas, on a ranch for teens struggling with life issues, and as a youth minister in the Appalachian region.

I have sixteen hundred hours of supervised ministry in Clinical Pastoral Education. I hold a Master of Divinity from Emmanuel Christian Seminary where I focused my elective hours on Hebrew Scriptures and Family Systems. My thesis focused on the Hebrew Scriptures’ dignity laws in Leviticus and Exodus. I loves leader and have a particular concern for church leaders and their ongoing health.

I was privileged to grow up in Perth, Western Australia, in an adventurous family of origin. After moving to the United States for theological study, I married Lisa and together we have two sons and a daughter, in whom I take great delight. When I am not working, you can find me laughing with my family, knee-deep in a trout stream, or trying a guitar I cannot afford at a local music store.

I’ve been a follower of Jesus since the mid 1980s and a full-time pastor since the mid 1990s. I write about leadership and the intersection of theology and life and occasionally anything whimsical. I primarily write for faith leaders and followers of Jesus.

My topics for leaders focus on learning to “think about the way you think” and getting from stuck to unstuck as well as some of the more classic church leadership topics such a preaching, change management and soul care. For the wider Christian audience, I write theologically informed reflections.

Before joining Discovery Christian Church (www.dc2.me) in 2005, I served as a hospital chaplain, a counselor to at risk teens, a crisis interventionist and an associate pastor.

I love to hear from readers and do my best to scratch where we’re itching.